They start young.

It’s very telling about the state of my ego when a 12 year old boy almost managed to charm the pants off of me.

I was playing MS when I started chatting with another character. His sentences were peppered with “honey”, “sugar” and “sweetie”, and his English was pretty good. That’s what got me. In a place where childish and singlish conversation abound, I was immediately curious about the person behind this character. So I asked him how old he was – and was floored by his reply.“I’m 12. Will be 13 soon.”Yeah right was what I thought. “Sure” was what I replied.“You don’t believe me?”“Well, 12 year olds don’t talk like that” I said.“Everyone says I’m a charmer.” His confident reply.Then he asked for my age. Joining in the fun, I told him I was 9. “Well, since you believed me, I shall trust you.” He typed. And so we went on, flirting and occasionally killing some monsters, until we reached a point where I almost revealed my actual age to him.“Oh I’m old and forgetful,” I said.“You lied! You said you were 9, and I believed you!” came his message.Trying to cover my ass, I asked, “Then how old do I sound like?” At this point, I was almost ready to tell him that I was twice ‘his age’, plus one, when his reply came fast and furious.“It’s the way you said it. 9 year olds don’t talk like that. You sound like you are… 14.”Short of falling off the chair with laughter, I felt my maternal instincts oozing out of my large pores. I had to stop myself. IF he’s really 12, that is. Ha!“You’re cute” I said.“Yeah everyone says that. Especially the girls.”Humour me and let’s pretend he’s 12, shall we?